Carrier reviews from a site owned by a company that, by its own portfolio, is paid to market and generate leads for many of the carriers it ranks.
What it's really for An affiliate review site for home and telecom services, owned by a carrier-affiliated group.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its phone, internet, and TV provider rankings, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
Reviews.org earns affiliate commissions from the carriers it ranks ("we may earn commissions no matter which product you buy"), and its parent, Clearlink, is a paid marketing and lead-generation partner for carriers including AT&T, Verizon, Frontier, CenturyLink, DISH and DIRECTV; the site discloses that commercial relationships can affect ranking visibility, though it says they "generally will not affect our actual opinion."
Source →- Operating since
- 2015 (11 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- An affiliate-commission review and rankings site for internet, mobile, TV and home services, owned by carrier marketing and lead-generation firm Clearlink.
- What they do
- It publishes guides, rankings and reviews of phone, internet, TV and home-services providers, drawing on price comparisons, customer interviews and claimed hands-on testing.
- What to watch for
- By its own disclosure, its brand relationships can affect how quickly products are reviewed and "how visible they are on our rankings pieces," and the disclosure page does not mention that parent Clearlink is also paid to market for many of those same carriers.
- Composite score
- 2.00 / 5.00 → grade C-
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- We also maintain affiliate relationships with multiple companies that compete for your business, which means we may earn commissions no matter which product you buy. Our relationships with brands do sometimes affect how quickly we review their products/service, and how visible they are on our rankings pieces. However, affiliate relationships generally will not affect our actual opinion of the product or service. Source: Reviews.org Disclosure Policies →
- Reviews.org (founded 2015) describes itself as helping people find internet and mobile services, earning money when readers click affiliate links while stating that brand partners do not approve pieces before publication; the site is listed among Clearlink's owned properties. Source: Reviews.org About Us →
- Clearlink, parent of Reviews.org, is a marketing, sales-conversion and lead-generation company that has delivered customers to brand partners including ADT, AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier Communications, Verizon, DISH Network and DIRECTV — the same kinds of carriers ranked on its review properties. Source: Clearlink / buyCalls acquisition (PRWeb) →